Tag Archives: manufacturing sector

The nation’s unemployment rate was unchanged at 9.6 percent after the economy lost 54,000 jobs in August.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported today that government employment fell as a result of shedding 114,000 temporary workers hired for the Census. Private-sector payroll employment rose by 67,000.

“The August jobs report, albeit tepid, does show the economy is holding steady, despite speculation to the contrary,” says Frank Armendariz, Arizona regional director at Manpower. “This is consistent with what I’m seeing in the market, as well as what the quarterly Manpower Employment Outlook Survey (MEOS) has been reporting for the past three quarters. Our quarterly MEOS survey measures employers’ intentions to increase or decrease the number of employees in their work force during the next quarter, and we’ve seen consistent results in our Phoenix-area survey this year.”

According to the BLS, the number of jobless Americans stands at 14.9 million. The number of long-term unemployed (those who have been out of work 27 weeks or more) declined last month by 323,000 to 6.2 million. In August, 42 percent of the nation’s unemployed had not worked for 27 weeks or more.

Government employment fell by 121,000, largely due to the loss of Census 2010 workers. Total private employment continued a rising trend. The BLS reports that since its most recent low in December 2009, private-sector employment has risen by 763,000.

“The fact that we’ve seen eight straight months of private-sector job growth is very encouraging and is consistent with what I’m seeing — employers are continuing to hire each quarter, but in limited quantities, with a majority of firms holding steady with their current labor force,” Armendariz says. “This is an improvement from last year when we were seeing mass layoffs and very little hiring.”

Employment gains were seen in health care, mining and construction. The manufacturing sector lost jobs, while employment in retail trade was essentially unchanged.

“The recession brought about huge changes in the labor market in a very short period of time,” Armendariz says. “Now we’re seeing new jobs come back very slowly. At the current pace, it will take years for us to get back to pre-recession employment levels. As a result, the limited labor market growth we’re experiencing feels almost imperceptible in comparison to the free fall we took in the wrong direction last year.”